Praetors of Calth

[Isengrin]

Ever since you've posted this particular Word Bearer, I was curious to see him painted. It's such a cool conversion. In the immortal words of Bart Scott: "Can't wait!"

[apologist]

Cheers! Here's part 2:

 

+ Painting the Blasted Cedar (cont.) +

 

_v: Dilute Liche Purple heavily using flow enhancer, then paint it on like a wash, working it into the recesses. While it remains wet, clean and dry your brush and lift it off raised areas, leaving it visible in the recesses and shaded areas.

 

_vi: Mix Vallejo Scarlet and Vallejo White to make a pink mix, and highlights the edges of the plates that are facing the light source (i.e. upwards).

 

_vii: Work Ogryn Flesh into the recesses only, wiping away any excess from flat plates.

 

_viii: Make a dark mix of Boltgun metal with a little sepia ink and silver ink added. Use this to pick out any metallic areas such as the shoudler trim, backpack and boltgun details.

 

_ix: Glaze the red armour evenly using Bloodletter glaze. Lay it on thinly; you don't want it to pool.

 

_x: Once dry, repeat two or three times – this will gradually strengthen the hue without obscuring your highlights, so the more layers you do, the better. (Note how the pinkness of the highlights in step _vi are enriched and become red.)

 

_xi: Reinstate the finest highlights with a lighter mix (i.e. more white) of Vallejo Scarlet and Vallejo White). These will look pink again, but don't panic – another layer or two of Bloodletter glaze will bring them back to a brooding, rich red.

 

_xii: Alternatively, you can use red ink, which will give a slightly glossy finish, to knock the pinkness back. I used Winsor & Newton Vermilion ink.

[Idomeneus]

Very nice. Do they dry shiny or go more matte?

[apologist]

They'll dry slightly shiny if they're allowed to form a complete layer; but you can draw it off (as in step v) if you want to break it up. You can also keep the layer thin to avoid shininess.

[Bob Hunk]

I think I've said it before, but I'll reiterate - I absolutely love your Word Bearer conversions Apologist. There's something mad and Chaotic about them, without being the traditional "spikes and tentacles". Almost a fevered, dream-like quality...

[jimbo13]

Hey apologist, silly question. On that model is the head separate? Or attached to the model?

 

Also that red is beautiful.

Edited October 14, 2016 by jimbo13

[apologist]

Thank Bob Hunk!

jimbo13; the base model for the conversion has an integrated head, but it's fairly easy to cut away to reposition, which I've done on this chap.

[The Red Angel]

Any update on these?

 

They look incredible.

 

Also, slight curiosity, what is the general dimensions of the torso's you use? i.e: the height and width. as well as the general height of the standard line astartes?

 

 And will you be updating your earlier astartes models to the newer theme of mkIII shoulder pads with the metallic gold trims?

 

Keep it up

[apologist]

No huge movement on the Ultramarines (though there's some Metallum Gravis on the horizon...) 

 

In terms of the torso dimensions, the easiest description in to look at a Grey Knight Terminator torso – that's got the right width and (assuming you use Terminator legs) they'll give you the right height, too.

 

In terms of updating the older models, I've ummed and ahhed about it for a long time, and came to the conclusion that I'd rather keep them as-is – they're a very special project for me, and in any case, I prefer to invest my energy in making new stuff than going back to older work.

[apologist]

...as an append to the torso question, I wrote a 

tutorial on the process I use, which covers the torsos in this bit.

[apologist]

+ You can't teach an old blog new tricks +

 

...but you can keep it going when progress is made. Out of the blue (ho ho), I was struck by enthusiasm for my Ultramarines, so I dug out a couple who had been languishing unpainted and decided to write a tutorial. You can read part 1 here.

 

Here's what you end up with after two hours:

Edited April 25, 2017 by Apologist

[Laughingman]

Dig the rotor cannon.  I imagined they became popular on Calth during the underground war as traditional bolter ammunition supplies dwindled, while stockpiles persisted of stubber ammo stockpiled in underground ecologies.

[lionofjudah]

Always a treat when you break the smurfs out:)

Seriously though.... I'm fighting tooth and nail in my head against selling it all and re-truescaling an army... maybe warriors as I've got Perty almost finished.

Glad to see the FB Rubric page filling up with links:)

[apologist]

Well, from the rumours flying around, looks like you won't need to! Like Doghouse, I'm very happy to see better-proportioned marines on the horizon :)

 

That said, I'd love to see what you'd do with the IVth Legion. If it's half as cool as that Perturabo you're working on, they'll be a triumph.

[apologist]

Painting continues. Got a bit frustrated with Sergeant Tulian Aquila's face, and so spent far too long on it. Half-feel like I've overworked it, and so stopping is the best idea at this point :\

 

 

Pleased with Septival's eyes, though. One of the nice things of having these unconnected to my other Ultramarines is that I can play around with minor variation – orange eye lenses rather than purple, and metallic backpacks (as opposed to having blue plates). I quite like the change.

 

I'm getting to the stage now where it's down to detailing. Honour to the Dead doesn't include any direct information on which Company etc. Aquila and his men belong to – at least, that I can find. Descriptions are limited to 'dark hair' for Aquila and the like. I've sent Gav a message on Facebook to ask if he had any thoughts on specifics, but he's a busy chap, so I'm not holding out too much hope for a reply on something so minor (though I hope he likes how they look!) 

 

In the (fairly likely) event he doesn't, I'll need to work out what markings to use. That leads to my question – while Honour to the Dead doesn't have direct info, I wonder if I can tap the B&C noosphere for inferred knowledge. Given the info of the story – location, Titan forces present etc. – can anyone think of an existing reference (perhaps in Tempest?) for the Ultramarines here?

 

Ultimately it doesn't strictly matter; it'd be entirely reasonable for me to make up any company/Chapter etc.; but I thought it'd be fun to be able to point to something appropriate. Can you help?

 

+EDIT+

As a starting point, there's this info from Tempest:

 

 

17th Chapter, 18th Chapter, 23rd Chapter and 4th Chapter comprising those chapters whose order of battle included large numbers of armoured vehicles, especially the 4th, known as the 'Auronans'. These chapters were assigned to muster in the largely uninhabited continent of lthraca.

 

The setting of Honour for the Dead mentions Ithraca (though here it seems to be a city – perhaps the City and continent share a name?) repeatedly; it's where the action takes place. As a result, the Chapters listed seem a good starting option.

 

As an alternative:

 

 

20th Chapter and 21st Chapter – known informally within the Legion as 'The Eagles' and 'The Hawks', the 20th Chapter having trained extensively for void combat and the 21st being renowned for the skill of its pilots. These two chapters were assigned to security duties among the orbital platforms and docked warships in Calth's local orbit.

 

Tulian Aquila is also the name of the first Chapter Master of the Doom Eagles later on; so I'm presuming Honour to the Dead is a window into his earlier service. For that reason, it'd be quite fitting to have him be a member of the 20th. It could be reasoned that he was on board a security shuttle monitoring loading of the Titans, hence why he ended up on the surface.

 

Thoughts?

Edited April 26, 2017 by Apologist

[apologist]

Phew! Finished.

 

I contacted Gav, and he was very helpful. After a chat, I've gone with the 20th Chapter – the 'Eagles' – for Aquila and his men. You can read more in-depth notes on the painting on Death of a Rubricist, but here's the finished article:

 

 

These were a great chance to paint some marines using the official colour scheme, rather than the ones that I made up way back in 2008(!). Love to hear what you think – in particular, does anyone have any clever ideas for the other characters in the story?

 

 

 

Sharp-eyed readers will spot I bit the bullet and repainted Aquila's face. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2017 by Apologist

[The Red Angel]

Apologist, what's your oppinion on the new intercessor Marines? will these make your truscaling easier? will you keep doing your current method? Edited May 15, 2017 by The Red Angel

[apologist]

I like the look of them a lot. If GW were to have started from a completely clean slate, rather than having thirty years of real-world history, I suspect that's what 'space marines' would look like.

 

A lot of the common objections - pose, proportion, 'realism' in terms of bullet traps in the armour, even the absence of an ejection port on the boltgun... - all have been sorted out.

 

I have no doubts whatsoever that parts from these new models will end up being used here and there - I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the arms separately - but I'm really fond of the look of my method (which has built on the shoulders of giants!), so I don't feel the need to alter my approach too much.

[apologist]

Back in July, I hit Mark 5,256,000 with my Ultramarines – or, to put it in normal terms, I've been building my Legio XIII force for ten years. Quite a milestone!

 

 

I'll be taking them out on the road in October, back to Southampton, in case anyone's free on the 10th and 11th and fancies a game.

 

+++

 

Secondly, Adeptus Titanicus is coming out. I've been working on the True Messengers of  Legio Praesagius, to give my Epic-scale Ultramarines a bit of much-needed support. Only the legs of Scesis Onomaton are done so far:

 

 

 

...but the rest is on its way:

[Pearson73]

That's one beautiful looking titan, the colours work really well together.

[hushrong]

This was a great read through! Congrats on ten years. I want to say a few less back I came across your work on warseer and still love it!

 

And the more I see of these damnable titans I want them! Seeing your warlord with Epic goodies just has me foaming at the mouth!

[Luna707]

Great choice of Titan Legion, they fit so well with the XIIIth aesthetically. I'm looking forward to seeing you get your hands on Titanicus! 

[Elzender]

Out of curiosity, where did you get that warlord from? Is it a private sculpt, or did you get a copy in advance like the guys and girls at Battle Bunnies? Either way, it is looking cracking, cannot wait to see it complete.

 

And congratulations to you and your Praetors for the milestone! Here's to many, many more!

[Red_Shift]

Any progress with the warlord apologist? I'm tempted to look at a similar colour palate for my warlord when it arrives to contrast from my red knights.

[apologist]

+ Scesis Onomaton +

Painting is ongoing; but I'm at a good stage – just the blue to highlight and white to clean up a bit on the upper body before I can turn to the fun bits like heraldry.